At Religion Dispatches, Johnny P. Flynn reflects on a recent disaster in a white-run sweat lodge in Arizona:
First of all, there’s the question of the relationship of Indian religion to American culture. Non-Indians have been making a lucrative business out of the appropriation of Native ceremonies for years. Ray’s weeklong event in Sedona cost each participant more than $9,000. A search of any number of Web sites advertising these “Indian ceremonies” will turn up sweat lodges that average over $100 per event, and four-day “vision quests” going for around five hundred dollars, “all meals included” and “Visa and MasterCard accepted.”
Indians all across the country are upset, saying white people stole the land, killed the buffalo, and now want to steal the religion.
Continue reading at Religion Dispatches.